Three Excuses and One Truth
by what a feeling
Summary: He needs some practice runs before the real thing. And when it happens, boy, does it happen. Percabeth. Mortal AU. One shot. Complete. Rated M, but I'd say 3/4 parts is just T?
**DISCLAIMER: I do not own PJO/HoO or anything else you may recognize.**

 **A/N: The last part is kind of smut, I think? Definitely implied sex, so you've been warned! The first three parts are just a whole load of fluff, so if it makes you uncomfortable, just ignore the fourth part! xo**

1.

The first time Percy kissed Annabeth is very likely the most awkward moment of his entire, long, embarrassing life. It's cliché and all, but Vanessa's walking up to him and he just panics. She makes him really uncomfortable and is always trying to get him to go out to coffee with her, and he's sure she's a great girl, but just the _thought_ of having to sit with her for an hour (or maybe even _longer_ ) makes him want to cry out of boredom.

Annabeth's leaning against her locker and smirking at him as she gives him a commentary on how she's checking her reflection on every reflecting surface as she approaches them, and Percy shuts his eyes before muttering,

"Know that I really am sorry." Before leaning forward and pressing his lips on his best friend's. She doesn't move, her eyes only widen at him, and Percy's so mortified by his own actions, he can't bring himself to _actually_ kiss her, so they stare at each other with their lips crashed together, and it's probably the worst first kiss in the history of bad kisses.

It feels like an eternity before a voice pulls them apart.

"You guys are dating?" Vanessa looks torn between being angry and sad, and Percy doesn't hesitate to pull Annabeth to his side and beam proudly at her.

"Yes." He declares, dropping another kiss on her temple for good measure (and _not_ because he thinks he can get used to kissing Annabeth). She slips her arm around his waist and rests her head on his shoulder, and he can't see her face, but he can hear her smile when she speaks.

"Three days now, isn't that right, Boo?" She stands on her tiptoes and lets her lips skim over the skin at his jaw, sending a shiver down his spine. Her eyes are bright with humor, and he's thankful she isn't mad at him. "Best three days of my life, right, Cupcake?"

Oh. Oh. Percy realizes what she's doing, and nearly scowls at her when he remembers Vanessa's watching them with a slightly amused expression. He tightens his hold on her and bends so his nose bumps hers, and he flashes her a large smile.

"Absolutely, Muffin." He grins, before looking up at Vanessa, as if she distracted him from something important. "Oh, yeah, my Cuddlekins and I have had the most magical three days and-" He looks down at his watch. "Six hours, honey! Happy new hour!"

He can see Annabeth trying to hold back her laughter, so he decides to quit while they're still riding high. "We need to go to class now, don't we, doll? Let's go." He doesn't wait for either og the girls' response before steering Annabeth away.

She bursts into a fit of giggles when they turn the corner, and Percy can't help but crack a fond smile at his best friend. Annabeth's laugh is probably the cutest thing in the world (Not that he'd ever say that out loud). He finds himself joining her, only because her laugh is so contagious. When they finally calm down, he notices a light blush lighting her cheeks.

"So, uh, about the kiss-" He tells her, scratching the back of his neck. It was the first time he'd ever kissed a girl, and he's pretty sure he was a total and complete disappointment. Annabeth stops him with a wave of her hands.

"Don't sweat it." She says, looking as unwilling to talk about it as he feels.

"Yeah, okay, cool." Percy says, before unnecessarily adding, "Great."

She nods her head at him over and over again before pointing to the classroom they're standing outside.

"Well, this is me." She says, shuffling her feet. "AP Physics. Good stuff." She ducks into the classroom before he can say his goodbyes, and he's a little thankful because he doesn't think he could have gotten through that conversation without saying something to mess it up.

He doesn't like that there's this weirdness between the two of them; but he thinks it'll get better. He hopes it does, at least, because if he's being honest,

He doesn't regret kissing her one bit.

2.

The second time they kiss, it's at Jason's place. He'd invited a whole bunch of them over for a Christmas Eve party, and Annabeth decides she'll bring out the bottles of soda. Percy volunteers to help her out and follows her into the kitchen. She hands him some of the large bottles and is about to follow him into the living room with all their friends, when he hears the unmistakable _thud_! of a person landing on wood.

He turns around to see Annabeth already on her knees and getting to her feet, face burning a bright red. He lets out a laugh as he moves towards her to offer her support, even though his hands are full. She ignores everyone's laughter as she picks up the six packs she'd dropped as she fell, and straightens up, and Percy has the irresistible urge to tuck a stray curl behind her ear.

"You okay?" He asks her, and she only nods, obviously embarrassed.

"I think I tripped over something." She says, and they turn around to see absolutely nothing on the floor. He looks up at her.

"Could've been your ego." He suggests, and she rolls her eyes with a grin.

"Stop flirting, you guys!" Leo calls. "And just kiss!"

Percy blinks at him. Everyoe is watching the two of them.

"What?" He asks, and Jason points to something above his head. He follows his gaze to see the mistletoe dangling just above them, and risks a glance at Annabeth, who's turning redder with every passing second.

"Uh, yeah, okay." He mumbles, meeting Annabeth's eyes. _You okay with this_? He asks her silently, and she gives him a small, nervous nod. "If it makes you uncomfortable,-"

"Not at all." She says, and he doesn't think before leaning forward and closing the gap between their lips. Since last year, he's definitely managed to get some experience, so it's not as terrible as the last time. She kisses him back, too, which is really a relief, and he tries to drown out Piper's coos. He slants his lips against hers, and he's glad his arms are full so he couldn't pull her closer to him- Who knows what that could do to their friendship?

He's known Annabeth for ages, now- ever since they were six, and okay, _fine_ , he's had a crush on her for like, four years, but he's not stupid. There's no point of acting on it; She doesn't seem to notice him, most of the time, at least as anything except her best friend. Sometimes Percy convinces himself that he's content with just being a part of her life, but on some days he just wishes he could share some kind of extra special relationship with her. She had Thalia, her other best friend, and he had Grover. He wishes he could have something exclusive with Annabeth, something that's only theirs.

He pulls away slowly, and looks at her. She doesn't open her eyes immediately, and her breathing is a little ragged. She's still blushing and it looks like she's lost track of time, and Percy feels a little proud for having that kind of an effect on her. He nudges her with his shoulder lightly, and she snaps back into reality. All their friends are hooting, and he ignores them as he takes his place beside Jason and Leo.

Annabeth doesn't look at him in the eye for the rest of the day, but he doesn't pay it much attention- The next day, she comes over for Christmas, as always, and they help his mom with dinner and bake cookies and fool around, just like every year, and everything's back to normal.

3.

They meet up almost every other week when they're at college. It's weird, he'd thought they'd grow apart, especially when he told her was moving to Berkeley, to the other end of the country, but she'd only grinned and led him into her room and showed him her Stanford scholarship letter.

He's staying over at her place this weekend, and they're driving down later on to watch a Lakers vs. Knicks game. He's lying across her perfectly made bed and flicking through one of her many magazines.

"I need to get rich." He tells her. "And fast." She's sat with her legs propped up on her desk, laptop balanced on her knees.

"Yeah?" She asks absently.

"There's so many things from IKEA I still need to own." That immediately gets her attention, and Percy grins. If there's three things he can always count on to grab her attention, it's IKEA furniture, dogs, and taking showers- Annabeth's a sucker for those.

"What kind?" She asks, swiveling around in her chair. She gets off and clambers into bed over him so she's lying on his back and peeking into the magazine over his shoulder.

"So many things." He mutters, because suddenly he can't think straight. It's not like he's not used to having Annabeth constantly touching him, but her face is too close to his, and he can smell her lemon shampoo. He looks over his shoulder to find her staring at him with heavily lidded eyes, and he's about to kiss her- Like, really kiss her and mean it, when her door bursts open.

Silena, her roommate and best friend in college, storms in with a scowl on her face.

"No, that's okay. Please, carry on. Make out. Have sex. See if I care that I'm going to die alone!" She wails, and Percy hears Annabeth sigh before rolling off him and approaching Silena.

"What did Beckendorf do?" She pinches the bridge of her nose, and her friend wastes no time in bursting into a story about how her boyfriend hasn't responded to her texts in two hours.

Much like his feelings towards Thalia, Percy just doesn't like Silena _because_. He knows it's because she steals Annabeth from him quite often, which is totally _not cool_ with him, but a part of him is specially annoyed with her because they _could_ have been having a moment just then if she hadn't interrupted.

Fifteen minutes later, she gets a response with an apology so she sniffs and tells them they can go ahead and 'fuck it out, the sexual tension makes it hard for her to think', and Percy feels his cheeks heating up. He ignores her and turns to Annabeth.

"You think we should leave for the game, then?" He asks. The drive is pretty long, and he doesn't want to be late. Both of them are hardcore New Yorkers, and even with her Virginia accent, Annabeth likes to pretend she's one hundred percent dedicated to the Knicks. She nods and quickly grabs a denim jacket she had draped on her chair before dragging him out while calling a goodbye to Silena.

"In a hurry, doll?" Percy jokes, and she sends him a plyful glare before cracking a smile.

"We're going to be late." Is all she says.

They get there on time, of course, and the match is tense. By the half time whistle, Percy's bitten off most of his nails. Next to him, Annabeth's sitting comfortably in her seat, her legs pulled up to her chest and curled into her seat. She's wearing his Knicks jersey from four years ago, and it's big enough to be a dress for her. Percy leans back in his seat and turns to her, slinging his arm around the back of her seat.

"I'll bet you five bucks and dinner that we'll win, but most of the baskets are scored in the last five minutes." Annabeth snorts.

"You're on." Percy's about to say something when he looks up to see why the entire crowd is cheering, only to find his face projected on the large screen. A string of cuss words run through his mind before nudging the blissfully oblivious young woman beside him.

"Hey." He says, nodding to the screen. "Kiss cam. Pucker up."

Annabeth looks a little confused at first, but she smiles shyly at him before leaning in and pressing a chaste kiss against his lips.

He's kissed Annabeth before, but this time is different. His heart explodes and fireworks go off in his stomach. His mind turns into goo and he doesn't know what comes over him when he reaches out and cups her face with one palm, the other holding her neck steady as he leans in to kiss her again.  
A real kiss.

His mouth moves slowly against hers, and finds that he's not really surprised when she kisses him back just as sweetly. They move in perfect sync, like they've been doing this all their lives. The kiss starts to heat up slowly, and the stadium and the crowd and the match and the players and the entire world slowly fades away as she lets his tongue slip into her mouth. He bites at her lips, sucking and pulling a little desperately, because after six years of longing for her, can you blame him? She moans against his mouth, drivng his hormones crazy, and he just wants to pick her up and shove her against a wall and, _oh_ , the things he wants to do to her. He draws away slowly, pulling her bottom lip with his teeth for a second before letting go, and Annabeth looks up at him with an expression he can't decipher.

"Perce-"

"I love you." He blurts. It's probably too soon, even if she _was_ going to say she wanted to be in a relationship with him, which, in retrospect, he didn't know for a fact, but he can't stop himself. She looks a little shocked and mouths his words silently.

"For real?" She asks quietly, and he realizes she's never had anyone tell her that before. Her mom had left when she was too young, and her dad barely spoke to her, leaving her with nobody. She'd spend most of her time with Percy and his mom, sure, and they both did love her, but it occurs to him that nobody has ever told her that out loud and meant it. He nods, locking eyes with her, with new found confidence.

"For real." He agrees. She stares at him for a moment longer before leaning forward and kissing him again.

"I think," She says quietly against his lips. "I might, too."

Percy thinks he can live with that.

4.

Percy wakes up to the smell of lemons. He leans away from Annabeth, who's curled up beside him, and presses butterfly kisses on the back of her neck, trailing down her bare back for as much as he can see over the blanket. She stirs beside him and turns around to smile sleepily at him.

"'Morning." She yawns. Percy moves so he's propped on his elbows just over her.

"'Morning." He smiles, leaning down and capturing her lips in his. He wraps his arms around her and rolls over so she's lying on top of him and smiles as she let out a moan as he trails his hands up her sides. He stops just below her breasts, pressing his thumbs into her ribs as he kisses down her jawline and neck, pausing to suck on the skin connecting her neck to her collarbone.

"Perce, don't-" She mumbles, not sounding like she particularly cares. "Leave a mark." She breaths, and Percy only laughs lightly against her skin, proceeding to bite at the skin, eliciting the most delicious moans from her. When he's sure his work is going to show, he dips his head nder the sheets, kissing, sucking and biting her smooth skin, listening to her moan and wrap her fingers in his hair.

"Percy, stop. I've got to get to class." She argues, but Percy only flips them over so he's on top again. He reaches out to cup her breast, giving it a light squeeze. Annabeth jerks upwards, and Percy smirks at her as he continues to massage her slowly.

"Annabeth," He knows how much she likes listening to him in the mornings, so he tries to make his voice as rough as he can. "Just relax, and let me have my fun." He winks at her, and she groans, although she doesn't protest. He moves slowly over her and positions himself at her entrance. He bends down to suck on her nipple for a while before moving back to her lips. Befre he moves, he smiles down at his girlfriend.

"I love you." Despite her state, she beams back up at him.

"I love you too- _Oh, Percy_."


End file.
